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Gregg Bell joined The News Tribune in July 2014. Bell had been the director of writing for the University of Washington's athletic department for four years. He was the senior national sports writer in Seattle for The Associated Press from 2005-10, covering the Seahawks in their first Super Bowl season and beyond. He's also been The Sacramento Bee's beat writer on the Oakland Athletics and Raiders. The native of Steubenville, Ohio, is a 1993 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and a 2000 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.

They give up a lot of sacks too. And the bears passing rating is lower then ours, however Cutler is alot like Hasselbeck, imo, in that he can look like Manning in any game or look like Leaf in any game. Here’s hoping that he looks more like Leaf.

Pretty even matchup on paper. This sure is different, vegas only has the Bears favored by the token -3 for home field. I guess the only people in the country that don’t think the Hawks can win this one is Seattle fans. Lol. No really, I think we can do this, but we can’t keep going with the gawdawful predictable run,run, pass, punt on offense, and the “prevent” pressureless defense.

Coaching/gameplan/adjustments will continue to be our downfall. I expect Brandon Marshall to catch 9+ balls for 150+ yards and 2 scores because Bradley will stubbornly call idiotic defenses, won’t pressure Cutler (despite a bad OL) and will not adjust as Bears burn us.

“5. Miami’s fourth-quarter offensive explosion: The Dolphins’ O was mostly quiet Sunday, only to explode for 17 points in the fourth quarter.

How? Give a lot of the credit to the Dolphins’ line. Ryan Tannehill had five completions of more than 15 yards in the final quarter, and on all of them, he spent at least three seconds in the pocket. On multiple occasions Tannehill had enough time to step up, pat the ball several times, then find a receiver downfield. On a key deep ball to Davone Bess, Tannehill held the ball for five full seconds — an eternity in NFL parlance. The Seahawks had 10 QB hurries in the game, but failed to get to Tannehill late.”

“5. Miami’s fourth-quarter offensive explosion: The Dolphins’ O was mostly quiet Sunday, only to explode for 17 points in the fourth quarter.
How? Give a lot of the credit to the Dolphins’ line. Ryan Tannehill had five completions of more than 15 yards in the final quarter, and on all of them, he spent at least three seconds in the pocket. On multiple occasions Tannehill had enough time to step up, pat the ball several times, then find a receiver downfield. On a key deep ball to Davone Bess, Tannehill held the ball for five full seconds — an eternity in NFL parlance. The Seahawks had 10 QB hurries in the game, but failed to get to Tannehill late.”

That was the single biggest failing in the game to me – the inability to get pressure on Tannehill late in the game. If the players we had in there couldn’t get it done, then I do think it was incumbent on the coaches to figure out ways to get pressue scheme-wise.

Just heard a report about the Seahawks putting a waiver claim on the recently released Philadelphia Eagle, Justin Babin.

The ‘Hawks got the cap room, and are really desperate to develop a consistent pash rush. Might have wanted to wait and put a claim on Nnamdi considering they are about to be playing practice squad guys in the defensive backfield pretty soon though. Some speculate he will the next person to be cut. Nice to see a Seattle team not being bashful about going after guys to try to improve midseason, regardless of cost. Perhaps not wise, but still a refreshing thing to have happen around these parts.

“No, we don’t know where we’re going”
“But, we sure know where we’ve been”
“Hanging on the promises”
“In the plays of yesterday”
“An’ we’ve made up our minds”
“We ain’t wasting no more time”
“Here we go again”
“Here I go again”

“Tho’ we keep searching for an answer,”
“We never seem to find what we’re looking for”
“Oh Lord, we pray”
“You give us strength to carry on,”
“Cos we know what it means”
“To walk along the lonely Seahawk dreams”

“An’ here we go again on the road”
“Goin’ down to play the Bears for playoff hopes”
“hopefully this game will make the Seahawks grow”
“An’ we’ve made up our minds”
We ain’t wasting no more time”

GeorgiaHawk, I don’t think you can compare Curry and Alexander AT ALL. Curry NEVER earned his money. Alexander had a borderline HOF career and was UNDERPAID for years. Did he play up to his final contract? No. Did he outperform his previous contract? Yes. By a long shot. You realize that only 15 mil of his big contract was guaranteed, right? I’m not going to totally defend his play after the contract, but he did have some injuries. He was actually playing well at the beginning of 2007 before he broke his hand. His running style certainly wouldn’t make you confuse him for Beast Mode! My point is that he probably got about the money he deserved for his career. Fans love to whine about players not playing up to a contract, but they don’t seem to mind when they are underpaid for years. Strange. It’s the same with Lofa. He gave them 3 pro bowl years where he was severely underpaid. He then gave them 3 injury-plagued years after the contract, though he played most of 2010 he was probably only slightly above average due to the toll of injuries.

I was wondering if they would kick the tires on Babin, but I was thinking they would wait to see if he made it through waivers. If all the guaranteed money has already been paid out, maybe they’re just going to pick him up for the rest of the year and then reevaluate after the season?

You can say that Alexander was underpaid for the production he gave Seattle on his original rookie contract. I think the point is that it’s wrong to tar Curry and Alexander with the same feather.

Babin is good insurance for Irvin, as they basically fill the same role. But if Seattle ends up starting Babin or playing him more than 20% of the downs, we’ll have problems of our own. Babin is useless against the run, and the most one-trick pony of one-trick ponies (pass rush only.)

If Philadelphia cut him mid-season, that says a lot. It’s not like he had a huge cash bonus due next week that would go against the cap.

I call him insurance because if Babin replaces Irvin, it will stunt Irvin’s development. I hope that Irvin will evolve into a more rounded player than Babin. That’s what justifies a 1st round pick being spent on Irvin.

Yep, Chicago is only rated lower in passing because of their good defense. LOL! They have comparable talent on offense to the Hawks IMO, excluding the QB. Their O-line is worse than ours, at least at pass blocking IMO, but I would bet that we’d have more than 21 sacks allowed if we had Cutler instead of RW back there. They have 2 good RBs. Marshall has more catches and yards than our top 2 receivers COMBINED! Our TEs are better.

Let’s look at Chuckler. Less yards per pass attempt? Check. Lower completion percentage? Check. Less TDs? Check. More INTs? Check. Lower QB rating? Check. Lower QBR, though I don’t put a lot of stock into it? Check. Less rushing yards and rushing first downs? Check. 6 more years of experience? Check. It must be because he’s too short I guess.

bbnate420. Nice comment about Alexander. People often leave out the fact that the O line was pretty much ignored after the 2005 season. Big Walk hurt, Poison pill guard left to the Vikings, the rest of the line made up of lower picks and lower tiered players. The line that dominated the 2005 season was built over several seasons and peaked in 2005-06. After Alexander signed the line was in shambles. Not sure many backs could have ran behind that line. Beside, Numskull only signed him to try and make up for botching deals on several other players, including Hutch, who played a big part of that on his own by signing the deal that was designed to hurt the Seahawks.

freedom_x, I agree about Babin. I wouldn’t mind them bringing him in if he makes it through waivers. Provides insurance for both Clemons and Irvin. If our CBs are suspended, fresher pass rushers certainly wouldn’t hurt.

GeorgiaHawk, I understand. I was disappointed as well. It’s a lot easier for fans to get behind a runner like Lynch. Sometimes we fans myopically focus on the teams needs and interests and forget to keep some perspective.

The reason people don’t say anything about most underpaid players is because of the fear of them getting big money and folding (see Clem and Big Red).When they’re underpaid they often play with more fire, determination, and motivation.But once they,(talking bout hawks here)get the reward it’s seems they become content.

Lynch? How does he fit into your theory?
Clemons? He has folded? He’s on pace for 11.6 sacks this year. He had 11 sacks in both 2010 and 2011. Seems like the same production to me.
Red? I think it’s rather presumptuous and speculative to say that he has folded. He never was a big stats guy. I think you really have to watch tape and know what you’re looking at to say that about a player like Red.

I don’t think Chris Clemons and Red Bryant have folded. Clemons appears to be doing the same thing he’s been doing ever since he got here – adequate run defense and double-digit sacks (8 so far.) He’s never been an constant, unstoppable pass rush force. Clemons has always gotten sacks in bunches, usually at home. He does give consistent effort and energy.

Bryant started off well, and given his past history, I’d suspect something like an undisclosed injury before writing him off as a slacker.

The real line issues are inside IMHO. The guys playing for contracts (Branch and Jones) aren’t doing much lately, though Jones was hurt. And Mebane has slipped a lot in recent weeks.

bbnate, I don’t just blame of player of inconsistent play unless it’s something I noticed watching more than one game.Red Bryant is nothing other than a one trick pony.A run stuffer.And looking at the tape, he has been invisible.

freedom, you can blame injuries all you want.But the truth is the truth.I agree Jones and Branch haven’t been holding up either.Neither Mebane.But wanting to give a high priced player a pass is folly.Before the leg or calf situation (can’t remember) he wasn’t all that dominant either.Having 5 good games just won’t do it.That goes for he and Clem.And Clem actually has more sacks on the road then at home.He was interviewed about that and he said he can time the snaps better on the road because of less noise.Just saying.

Lastly, what I mean by players folding is guys who are getting paid like top notch lineman but there production doesn’t match their contract.

Walters, The crap coming out of you mouth is getting more spiteful as time goes on. You seem to be another one who loves to talk trash after a loss. It’s too bad you can’t tell Red & Clem directly that they’ve folded. That would be fun to see.

Why is it every time someone says something about anyone on this team, you same guys always take offence? This team is not perfect bro.What I see is what I see.Unless you want me to join you’re IN-DENIAL club??

So again, we are statistically better than the team we are going to play. Maybe we can convince the league to just give it to us because we are better on paper. They will repsond with…”Miami beat you”.

At least we got productive years from Alexander before the handing over of the keys to the vault. So the arguement could be made that he was underpaid before the big bucks rolled in. Curry, not even so much as a glimpse of what he was in college. So we wasted a number four pick overall on him, that may place him above the thievery of Alexander.

We get to keep Sherman and Browner for this week because their appeals will be heard next week. So we wil lose them for the last four games of the season for a drug test they both failed 2 months ago. If most peope didn’t think the league had it out for Seattle and PC, this may go over without a hitch. But since it comes out to the public and is going to be enforced at a time when Seattle is making a playoff push, it reaks of being planned by the No Fun League.

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